Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Has $16.57 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 75.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 105,322 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 332,303 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $16,573,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $418,692,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after acquiring an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $306,444,000 after acquiring an additional 244,264 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded down $0.31 during trading on Thursday, hitting $147.48. 417,522 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,129,256. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $40.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $145.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $145.35.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 18.42%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on YUM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $170.00 to $162.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Citigroup raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $159.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total transaction of $40,332.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $260,231.40. The trade was a 13.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at $15,084,113.80. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,720 shares of company stock worth $2,150,965. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.